Perhaps we all should be Bradley Manning

Editor:

I read with approval Jim Skvorc's March 26 letter about Bradley Manning's lonely campaign. We seem so mired in what we see immediately before us, e.g., the budget woes of the sequester, political rancor about gun control, wrangling about road closures, that we fail to see (and perhaps are not meant to see) the ongoing and destructive legacy of two immensely costly wars. These are wars which have bankrupted our society - financially and morally - and left so many dead and terribly injured.

There is a Federal Whistleblower Act which empowers federal employees to report abuses of power, and is part of a longstanding tradition of speaking the clear truth to power. We should be grateful for the single-handed courage of those like Bradley Manning who warn of a secretive military which employs stealthy, robotic killer drones, continues to waste resources in vain conflicts, and has little accountability for the continuing prosecution of foreign wars. Perhaps we all, as writer Chris Hedges says, are Bradley Manning, or should be.